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Arson fear on Marysville blaze

John Silvester and Marika Dobbin

POLICE investigating the massive Marysville bushfire now believe it may have been deliberately lit — suggesting more than half of those who died in Saturday's catastrophic firestorms across the state could have been victims of arson.

Days after the Churchill fire was attributed to arson, experts have confirmed that the source of the Marysville fire was not consistent with weather conditions and pre-existing outbreaks.

After receiving briefings from investigators, Chief Commissioner Christine Nixon told The Age: "The fire behaviour leads us to believe that the fire could have been deliberately lit."

The Phoenix taskforce investigation into the Marysville blaze, codenamed Groove, has found evidence to suggest the Marysville, Narbethong and Murrundindi fires all started from one source and then spotted to separate blazes.

This could mean one arsonist was behind a massive group of fires that is likely to have killed more than 100 people. The revelations came as:

¦ It emerged that several suspects had been interviewed over the Churchill fire, including a youth with a history of arson.

¦ The police union called for new powers allowing police to forcibly remove residents from homes under fire threat.

¦ Premier John Brumby said Victoria would go it alone, if necessary, on a new fire warning system. This came after criticism of politicians for failing to agree on a national system.

¦ Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced a national day of mourning for bushfire victims. A date has not yet been set.

¦ Governor-General Quentin Bryce shed tears in Alexandra as she spoke with homeless and grieving residents from Marysville, Narbethong and Buxton.

Ms Nixon said one of the reasons it was now believed the Marysville fire might have been a case of arson was that there was no other explanation for how it started. She said police were "suspicious about how the fire actually came into Marysville, the direction it came from, the pace it came with".

Police are using forensic experts, ground searches, CFA records, weather maps and satellite images to attempt to locate where the fire started.

A person charged with arson causing death now faces up to 25 years' jail. But an accused in the fatal bushfires would be charged with multiple counts equal to the number of people who died.

A Gippsland teenager with a history of arson is one of the suspects questioned this week by the Phoenix taskforce.

The boy pleaded guilty in a children's court last year over a fire he lit near Morwell in 2006. He was released without conviction, and put on a six-month supervision order.

Phoenix detectives have questioned a number of suspects over the Churchill and Marysville fires. The Age has learned police visited a woman with two arson convictions at home in Gippsland yesterday.

Deputy Commissioner Simon Overland said the deadly fires in Gippsland might have been the work of a serial arsonist. "It's too early to say whether it was that person that was responsible for the fire that happened on Saturday, but that's obviously something we will follow through."

Earlier, police arrested two men in Taggerty, near Marysville, who were said to be loitering suspiciously. They were cleared of any wrongdoing.

Mr Brumby, meanwhile, confirmed that a 15-hectare fire at Mansfield yesterday was deliberately lit. "There would seem to be no doubt," Mr Brumby said. "There was no lightning activity, it wasn't power lines … there was no spotting."

Police are also hunting a firebug in Melbourne after a grassfire burnt about six hectares along the Yarra River at Ivanhoe East yesterday. Police are looking for a man in his 20s who wore a black backpack and was seen in the Yarra Flats area, where the fire started, just before 3pm. With

13 Feb
Rain in Gippsland and Wilsons Promontory has eased the bushfire threat, but authorities still battling to bring 31 Victorian blazes under control have warned a forecast warm spell next week will work against them.